Fee lowered more than $15k to dress 'Spirit of Detroit' statue

AP File PhotoDetroit city workers help install a Detroit Tigers baseball jersey on the Spirit of Detroit statue in 2006.

DETROIT - Clothing the "Spirit of Detroit" is getting cheaper.

The Detroit-Wayne Joint Building Authority voted Friday to lower the fee for putting a jersey or other clothing on the 26-foot-tall bronze statue outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Building in downtown Detroit.

The Detroit Free Press reports sports teams and others now will have to pay $6,500, down from the $25,000 fee implemented after a major restoration of the statue last year.

The statue in the past has been dressed in oversized jerseys of the Detroit Tigers, Pistons and Red Wings in honor of the teams' championship runs. Michigan State balked at the fee during this year's Final Four at Ford Field.

Authorities said the fee was to cover the cost of restoring the statue after it dons a jersey.